How rural roots formed Jen Jordan’s calling to protect the rights of all Georgians. Written by Charita Sodagum and Sheri Panovka

When Georgia State Senator Jen Jordan was growing up with a single mom in rural Dodge County, she learned an important lesson about power — particularly what happens when you don’t have any. Her mom worked at a beauty shop, and Jordan would stop by every day after school. Between the endless salon chatter, telephones ringing and the constant sound of the blow dryers, she would perk her ears up and listen to the women talk about the various economic challenges and other things going on in their lives. Over the years, she came to realize the people in her community were being left behind, and she wanted to do something to change that. 

“Seeing and being a part of these places where people had limited financial resources and lacked power over so many areas, from debt collection or cars being repossessed — there were a lot of issues,” Jordan says. “That really affected me. It has informed my law practice for the last 20-plus years.”

Jordan, now 47, believes those in the Statehouse don’t always have everyone’s best interests in mind. She wants to change the power balance, so underserved areas receive better representation — and residents have their voices heard. She aims to do that from the highest legal office in the state: attorney general. Georgia has never elected a woman to that office. And Jordan, a proud Democrat, hopes to change that in November. And she promises to do things differently than the current officeholder. 

Living in rural Georgia, Jordan saw there were few in the private legal field helping people like those she grew up with. 

“Lawyers know you can't make a living fighting for people who can't pay you, and I think that's exactly what the attorney general is supposed to do,” she says. “Be the lawyer for the people, because they don't have one right now. They don’t have anyone really fighting for them.” 

Reimagining the way the office works, Jordan plans to focus on protecting Georgians’ rights when it comes to voting, worker safety and wages. On environmental justice issues, she wants to ensure the attorney general has the authority to intervene if companies and facilities are not following environmental regulations. People are getting sick from plants emitting cancer-causing ethylene oxide and other environmental catastrophes, Jordan says, and the current attorney general has repeatedly failed to intervene. 

Jordan also plans to address the rising tensions between law enforcement agencies and the communities they are sworn to protect. This could mean instituting mental health crisis intervention teams and better training programs focused on helping police officers de-escalate tense situations. When it comes to sexual assault and rape, she talks about building on best practices that already exist. “There are specific and effective trainings all over the United States that we're not adopting in Georgia.” Jordan will push for these programs and partner with law enforcement to work with their communities. If they aren’t doing what they should be to protect citizens, she says the attorney general's office must hold them accountable. 

Calling the attorney general a “dream job,” Jordan feels the significance of being the first woman to hold that position can’t be understated. “To be a woman who could stand in the role and model that for other women and girls is pretty meaningful.”  

After attending college at Georgia Southern University on the HOPE scholarship and working her way through law school at the University of Georgia, Jordan began her career clerking for a federal judge in a U.S. District Court. After two years, she became a trial lawyer focused on complex civil litigation, joining several firms over the years. As much as she loved the work, she realized the emphasis on profit over people did not fulfill her. She wanted to focus more on helping people and making a positive impact on individual lives, a desire cemented in her during those formative years in her mom’s beauty shop. In 2013, she started her own practice, and in 2015 she merged with another firm.   

After losing a case that went to the Georgia Supreme Court (centered on a young woman who had been sexually assaulted), Jordan realized the system was not designed to understand and protect women’s rights. It wasn’t enough to be a good lawyer; Jordan knew she had to push back and do what she had encouraged other women to do — run for office. So when she heard her Republican state senator, Hunter Hill, was stepping down to run for governor, she decided to make a go for his seat in a special nonpartisan election in November 2017. She beat out six other candidates — including five Republicans — to advance to the runoff. Her victory flipped the district and ended the Republicans’ supermajority in the State Senate. 

In the State Senate, Jordan has emerged as a powerful voice on issues including education, voting rights, reproductive health, environmental justice and criminal justice reform. She cites Senate Bill 202, the overhaul of Georgia’s election laws that passed in 2021, as an example of one of the biggest electoral fights she’s faced in the Senate. Jordan has loudly advocated against SB 202, arguing it disenfranchises voters of color, who represent a growing voter block in Georgia. Minority groups now make up 48 percent of Georgia, with the largest increases occurring among Asians, Blacks, Hispanics, American Indians and Pacific Islanders. 

Jordan says she’ll “fight every day for the Georgians who don’t have power, money or status — those who just need a fair shot to get ahead.” She grew up in one of the poorest parts of rural Georgia. Today, she represents a metro Atlanta district that is one of the wealthiest in the state. She sees a “disconnect” between those two worlds. Many people from the city and its environs have never been to the rural areas and don’t know what it’s like to grow up poor there, she says. “Experiencing both of these worlds gives me a real understanding of where folks are coming from and an opportunity to be empathetic and to talk to them.” 

That empathy, coupled with her experience, makes Jordan the best choice for attorney general, says Han Pham, executive director of Her Term, a Georgia-based initiative that recruits progressive women to run for public office at the state level. 

“Jen has spent decades practicing the law, doing the type of complex litigation the AG office engages in, working hard to protect average citizens like you and me,” says Pham. “She's the most qualified candidate on the ballot. She also happens to be a woman.” 

Although she has moved away from her rural roots, Jordan has maintained her soft Southern accent, and her heart remains in Dodge County. “When folks meet me, I look like their sister. I could be their granddaughter, and they see in me everything they want for their children.” To many, Jordan represents an American dream: She’s a product of the public education system now running for the top lawyer job in the state. She believes by talking to the people in communities like the one where she grew up, she can demonstrate how similar they are. 

“At the end of the day, we have a lot of shared values, even if we don't understand what that means in terms of policies.” Stressing the similarities, Jordan plans to build relationships with diverse communities to promote political unity. “Living in two very different places in the state gives me a very useful perspective.” 

In contrast, Georgia’s current attorney general, Republican Chris Carr, grew up in metro-Atlanta and attended an elite private school. But before facing him in November, Jordan needs to win the Democratic primary. She has the backing of more than three dozen members of Georgia’s General Assembly, several members of Congress, former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes and former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin. Some powerful groups have endorsed her, including the Democratic Attorneys General Association (DAGA). Through a statement on its website, the two attorneys general who co-chair the association, Aaron Ford of Nevada and Kathy Jennings of Delaware, asserted Jordan will keep communities safe, protect consumers and seniors from attempts to defraud them, and fight for clean air, water and natural resources. 

“From defending voting rights to making sure the criminal justice system is effective and fair for all Georgians — she’ll work tirelessly to use the law and her office as a powerful tool for justice,” Ford and Jennings say. “As a state senator, Jen has never shied away from a fight to protect the rights of all Georgians, and as attorney general, she’s going to be the ‘People’s Lawyer’ for all Georgians.” 

In addition to her post as chair of the Senate Special Judiciary Committee, Jordan serves on the Senate Banking and Financial Institutions, Government Oversight, Interstate Cooperation, Science and Technology, and Reapportionment and Redistricting committees. Yet she believes there is much more she can do. 

“I've spent the last few years watching the current attorney general not do his job, and I’ve seen how that has affected my family and the people I represent. You finally reach a point where you say, well, if he's not going to do the job, then somebody else needs to. And that somebody is me.”